The Portland Timbers finished their post-regular season training Monday, with head coach John Spencer telling the players standards will be raised and be prepared to work hard when their 2012 training camp begins in late January. Thomas Boyd/The Oregonian

The Portland Timbers wrapped up their post-regular season training Monday vowing to be ready when pre-season training begins in late January for the 2012 season.

The players parted their separate ways after a short small-sided game Monday morning, with Timbers coach John Spencer saying the 2012 season will be very different than the team's inaugural season in 2011.

"I told them to be ready to work hard when they come back next year," Spencer said. "You have to try and raise the standards, and you're going to have to raise your game, because nobody is going to look at (us) as being an expansion team. There's no excuses."

All of the players said they plan to take a couple of weeks off before beginning an off-season workout program in preparation for the 2012 season.

"I'll probably take 10 days to two weeks and do nothing. Maybe just go on light runs or maybe a walk. But, no weights, no fitness," goalkeeper Troy Perkins said. "Let all the joints and muscles recover fully and then come back and build into it."

Perkins said he will remain in Portland, but many of the other players will leave the city. Even during their travels elsewhere, the upcoming season will never be far from the minds of the players. Defender Mike Chabala said he will start a rigorous training program Dec. 1.

"I pride myself on being one of the fittest players at the start of camp," Chabala said. "I know I have to work hard if I want to stay that way."

The Timbers remained in the playoff race until the final week of the regular season in 2011, but defender Mamadou "Futty" Danso says he knows what the team will need to work on if they want to compete in the 2012 playoffs.

"We gave up a lot of goals in the last 20 minutes of the game. We can rectify that," Danso said. "If we can close out games, we will be in the playoffs."

Learning to close out games comes with experience, and the youngsters and rookies will have a year of MLS experience to carry into the 2012 season. That intangible could be the difference between the playoffs and sitting at home in 2012.

"We have that experience now under our belt. Now we know how to deal with it, which we did the last four games away (in 2011)," Danso said. "We want to concede way less (goals) than we did this season. If we (had) picked all the points we dropped in the last minutes of the game, I feel like we would have been in the playoffs before the season was even over."

Perkins said he thinks Spencer will place more emphasis on closing out games.

"I can see John right now, at the last five or 10 minutes of every (training) session just really yelling at us and driving us hard. That's going to be an emphasis on everything we do," Perkins said. "We're going to do drills where we're going to have to defend for two minutes straight and not give up anything."

Danso said he think the players will be much more committed to getting off to a fast start in 2012.

"I heard a lot of people saying they may come in two weeks early for training," Danso said. "I feel like players will be here early to get ready for next season."